The majority of the channel's content is produced from the station ABN, in Ultimo, Sydney which the public can view being presented from an atrium looking into the news presentation studio. ABC News'early morning programme, News Breakfast and the evening programme The World is produced at ABVSouthbank, Melbourne (weekdays).

Due to the rebroadcast of ABC HD on 6 December 2016, ABC News reduced to standard definition.[8]

History

The ABC announced in January 2010 that it planned to launch a 24-hour news channel.[3] The logo of ABC News 24 was revealed by Freeview in their new promotion on Tuesday 22 June.[9] The official promotional reel for the channel was launched on digital channel 24 between 6 and 8 July.[10]

Speculation about a launch date for the channel took place in the weeks prior to the official announcement. The Daily Telegraph claimed in early July that the channel would be delayed due to technical issues at the ABC's new playout facility, MediaHub, in south west Sydney while other outlets reported that the channel was on track to begin in mid-July.[11]

The ABC announced on 13 July 2010 that the channel would have its first live broadcast on 22 July.[6][7]

In November 2016, the ABC announced that ABC News 24 and ABC NewsRadio would be rebranded under a unified ABC News brand.[12] The relaunch occurred on 10 April 2017.[13][14]

Reception

Since the commencement of regular broadcasting, the reaction to the new news channel has been mixed. A particular concern has been the pressure placed upon the budget and operations of both the news division of the ABC, as well as the broadcaster as a whole, owing to the decision to launch the channel without additional Government funding, as was the case with the recent launch of the children's channel ABC3 (now named ABC ME).

In Senate Estimates hearings in February 2012 the broadcaster confirmed a $2.5 million shortfall in the budget for its news and current affairs division and imposed a 1.5% cut in newsroom budgets, though denies the link to the channel, instead pointing to recent major news events in the past year such as the Christchurch earthquakes and flooding in Queensland and Victoria.[15] However, Independent Senator Nick Xenophon has blamed the reported $20 million annual cost of the network for cutbacks in ABC TV sports coverage of the SANFL.[16]

However, the network has seen success with high viewership compared to competitor Sky News Australia, with reach exceeding 2 million viewers weekly, tripling that of Sky News.[17]

Existing shows News Breakfast and ABC News at Noon are broadcast live on the ABC News channel at the same time as on ABC TV in AEST/AEDT time zones; viewers in the AWST and ACST time zones can choose to watch these programs either live (on the ABC News channel) or on delay in their local time (on ABC TV). In addition, The Business is shown in an earlier timeslot than currently scheduled on ABC TV.

On 30 September 2010, the ABC announced the first new programme to be shown on the channel titled Capital Hill. The political programme, originally hosted by Chris Uhlmann airs Fridays at 5:30 pm AEST/AEDT and takes a look at the week's political events and news, as well as feature interviews with the key players of politics. It is now broadcast every weekday at 1:00 pm AEST/AEDT and is hosted by Greg Jennett.

The World presented by Scott Bevan

Overnight the ABC News channel uses "satellite" programming, mainly from BBC World News which mostly uses the main BBC News bulletins, as well as sometimes using shows such as Impact (TV programme) with Yalda Hakim, Outside Source with Ros Atkins and Global with Matthew Amroliwala. These BBC World News broadcasts come live into the ABC News channel before being broadcast around Australia. About two Al Jazeera EnglishNewshours are also broadcast. However, since 2018, the overnight programming has slowly refocused on rebroadcasts of the channel's daytime live shows like The Drum and The World (on weekdays), and ABC's own live news updates have increasingly carried.[19]

Repeated from ABC TV

Criticism

Along with other rolling news channels, the ABC News channel has been criticised for launching into rolling news coverage for "breaking news" where little new information supports such coverage, and just repeating limited information and footage about an event.[20] Conversely, the ABC News channel has also been criticised for not turning to rolling coverage.[21][22]

ABC News online

The ABC News channel can be streamed online at the ABC's website and on YouTube.[23] However, the YouTube stream is made available internationally except for the stream in iView where it is only available in Australia only,[24] and unlike other programming on iView, it is not currently offered as unmetered content by any internet service providers. The ABC News channel stream is available in medium and high bandwidth varieties on the iView site.

^Canning, Simon (16 December 2010). "ABC news missed the boat via reruns". www.theaustralian.com.au. The Australian. Retrieved 18 January 2015. THE ABC's news channel, ABC24, has been slammed by critics for failing to recognise the scale of the Christmas Island asylum-seeker tragedy.

^SIMONS, MARGARET (15 Aug 2011). "ABC News 24 runs on the smell of an oily rag". www.crikey.com.au. Crikey. Retrieved 18 January 2015. And other critics (including me) have complained that the channel is too slow to switch to breaking news.